There were so many things wrong with Steve Kerr moving to bring Shaquille O’Neal to the run-and-gun Phoenix Suns a few years ago that it’s hard to remember them all.

But fans and management in Cleveland should remember this one as the Cavs close in on a deal with the Suns: Amar’e Stoudemire was not the same player when Shaq was on the floor.

In theory they should be able to play together — Stoudemire in the high post, Shaq in the low post. But it didn’t work that way. Stoudemire likes to work on the low block and use his quickness, but that space was filled up. The Suns slowed down and Stoudemire found it harder to slash to the rim because Shaq’s defender was right there to help.

What’s worse, Steve Nash’s dribble penetration became difficult because the lane was clogged with big defenders, as opposed to being spread out. LeBron James, may want to ask Nash about this when he runs into him in Dallas this weekend. LeBron can already be a little eager to settle for the jumper, this could exacerbate that habit.

To be fair, that Shaq/Stoudemire Suns team started to figure it out and was hot going into the playoffs — this was a franchise that had been a Western Conference title contender three straight years, and maybe they had figured it out. Then they got routed in the first round by the Spurs. The next year they didn’t even make the playoffs (although injuries played a large role in that).

Stoudemire in some ways is a perfect running mate for LeBron on offense, and maybe this move and a contract extension with Stoudemire is about the future as much as the present. But Stoudemire can be a disinterested defender and certainly will struggle to stop the likes of Dwight Howard on the low block. The trade as proposed would send Zydrunas Ilgauskas west, so Shaq would be the lone guy who can defend true centers on the roster this season, and if he left after this season the Cavs would have another hole to fill.

When the Suns traded for Shaq, they had the best record in the Western Conference, were title contenders but thought they had a weakness that needed to be fixed. Right now Cleveland has the best record in the East, has beaten the Lakers twice and looks like a title contender.

Tom Benson, the now 90-year-old owner of the New Orleans Pelicans and the NFL’s Saints, a few years back changed around the succession of control of the team after his passing — his wife Gayle will take control. Rita Benson LeBlanc, Benson’s granddaughter and former handpicked successor, sued saying Benson had been manipulated. After meeting privately with Benson, a judge ruled that while Benson suffered some “cognitive impairment” he was capable of making his own decisions and that Gayle remained the successor.

Benson has been sued multiple times since then, including by former Saints employee Rodney Henry, and the then-89-year-old Benson was deposed in that case last year.

During another set of questions, apparently aimed at establishing how close Benson and Henry had been, Benson was shown a photo of the two men with Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

“Who is this?” Williams asked.

“It’s Rodney and a basketball player,” Benson said. “Oh, hell, I forget his name. Let me — he’s a great player for us. Tell me his name, and I will tell you yes or no.”

When asked “is it Anthony Davis,” Benson said yes. The man is 90, I’m not sure that we should expect much. He had the foresight to bring in people to run his businesses — including his sports teams — and set up a line of succession for when he does pass. Smart moves.

Would Benson’s mental state impact potential changes coming to the Pelicans? Probably not. New Orleans’ GM Dell Demps bet big on going big in a league trending smaller, pairing Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. If that doesn’t work out, plenty of people around the league expect a house cleaning on the basketball side with the Pelicans. Benson’s mental state, whatever it may be, does not impact that.

The deposition leak came from an anonymous source (and anonymous email account, the paper verified the document before publishing). Who leaked it? It may be nearly impossible to find out, but only one side benefits from all this becoming public. And it’s not Benson.

A few years back in Philadelphia, the athletic K.J. McDaniels was a highlight factory and looked like a guy who could develop into a role player on the wing in the NBA.

Except, he never actually developed. Houston gave him a chance (three years at a total of $10 million), and it didn’t work out, then last season Brooklyn had him for 20 games, but they decided to move on.

Now Toronto is going to give him a chance, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

McDaniels’ agent later confirmed the news. This is a training camp, make-good contract for McDaniels. But unlike a lot of those contracts being handed out around this time, there is space on the Raptors roster for a player or two.

Before the KJ McDaniels partial, Toronto had $116.6M in guaranteed salary with 13 players + the $100K partial of Alfonzo McKinnie.

McDaniels will compete with Alfonzo McKinnie, Kennedy Meeks, and Kyle Wiltjer for one of the final roster spots in Toronto. Of that group, I’d most likely want to keep McDaniels because of the shot blocking and his potential — but his outside shot has to improve.

The Raptors can carry 15 on the roster and very possibly will until at least Jan. 10, which is the date these partially guaranteed deals become fully guaranteed for the season. Toronto is flirting with the tax line, and ownership is not going to want to pay the tax for this team, so if they do carry 15 they likely will cut it to 14 by that date.

The #DriveByDunkChallenge has been a fun distraction this summer. If you don’t know what it is, it essentially involves NBA players jumping out of their cars to dunk on regular folks on community basketball hoops.

There are still some serious doubts about whether the Celtics will be able to unseat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but perhaps they won’t need to wait for long. Rumors are starting to trickle in about LeBron James leaving Ohio, so maybe by the time we are used to seeing Hayward in Celtics green next season they will have less competition out east.